


A Miracle Above, Beside, and Far Beyond the Hudson

by johnwcowan



Category: The People - Zenna Henderson
Genre: 2009, Gen, January 15, New York City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28726356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnwcowan/pseuds/johnwcowan
Summary: There's more than one way to keep an Airbus from falling out of the sky.  But then what?
Kudos: 1





	A Miracle Above, Beside, and Far Beyond the Hudson

**Author's Note:**

> The People belong to the Estate of Zenna Henderson (1917-1983), but none of the ones whose voices appear here are from either canon or any other fanfic (though some of the background is from my other People fanfic, "Work in Progress"). All Earth-human characters are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any other persons living or dead is a coincidence.

January 15, 2009

15:27:32 Captain: "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Ah, this is, ah, this is Cactus [callsign for U.S. Airways] fifteen-thirty-nine. Hit birds, we've lost thrust in both engines. We're turning back towards La Guardia."

15:27:42 DEP [LaGuardia Departure Control]: "Okay, uh, you need to return to La Guardia? Turn left, heading of, uh, two-two-zero."

15:27:46 Captain: "Two-two-zero."

A voice: Cactus fifteen-thirty-nine, this is November [callsign for U.S. general aviation] one-eight-eight-niner-Papa-Lima [registration number], do not return, repeat do _not_ attempt to return to LaGuardia. Your engines are not restartable.

15:27:54 First Officer: "Ignition ... thrust levers confirm idle."

15:27:58 Captain: "Idle."

15:28:02 First Officer: "Airspeed, optimum relight: three hundred knots. We don't have that."

15:28:05 Captain: "We don't."

15:28:05 DEP: "Cactus fifteen twenty nine, if we can get it for you do you want to try to land runway one three?"

15:28:06 Captain: "We're unable."

Voice: Captain, don't push the mic button, don't talk, just think. We can hear you. 

Captain: Papa-Lima, really? 

Voice: Yes. 

Captain: Papa-Lima, who are you and what is this about? 

Voice: Stand by, Cactus. We're going to save your plane. If we can. 

The same voice: EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY. There's need. All who can Hear me, respond. 

[Confused babel of voices]

Voice: All right, all right! Listen. There's a plane up here north of the Bronx with both engines out: a flock of birds flew into them and they can't be restarted. One hundred and fifty-five souls are at risk. We're going to need to lift the plane carefully so they can make it to a safe landing. 

Second voice: Are you nuts? What does it weigh? 

Third voice: Seventy tons. 

[Total silence]

Third voice: Give or take. 

First voice: How many of us are there? 

Fourth voice: I make it a few hundred. 

Third voice: There are seven hundred and forty-seven Listening, of whom only thirty-nine can't lift one way or another. 

Fifth voice: Including Outgathered? Some of them are _strong_.

Third voice. Yes, including. We can do it. Any one driving, pull over please. If you can sit down safely, do it. If you can lie down safely, do that. This is going to be _difficult_. People on the Upper West Side, West Harlem, Washington Heights, Riverdale, Yonkers, and eastern Hudson and Bergen Counties, you're going to be doing most of the work. Everyone else, support them rather than trying to lift the plane directly.

First voice: I'm right over the plane now. Initiate a Mass Cathexis Measure, on my mark ... Mark! 

[An indescribable event happens]

First voice: Captain, we are ... Hmmm. We are providing additional lift to you now. Unfortunately we can't provide any additional thrust, so you're a glider — but you'll be able to make it further than you could otherwise. 

Captain: I understand ... well, no, I don't. But thank you. 

15:28:14 First Officer: "Emergency electrical power ... emergency generator not online."

Fifth voice: I heard that, I'm on it .... There. 

15:28:19 Captain: "It's online."

15:28:31 DEP: "All right, Cactus fifteen-forty-nine. It's gonna be left traffic for runway three-one."

15:28:35 Captain: "Unable."

15:28:36 DEP: "Okay, what do you need to land?"

15:28:45 PWS [automated warning from Predictive Windshear System]: "Go around. Windshear ahead."

15:28:46 DEP: "Cactus fifteen twenty nine, runway four's available if you wanna make left traffic to runway four."

15:28:50 Captain: "I'm not sure we can make any runway. Ah, what's over to our right? Anything in New Jersey? Maybe Teterboro?"

15:28:55 DEP: "Okay, yeah, off your right side is Teterboro airport."

15:29:02 DEP: "You wanna try and go to Teterboro?"

15:29:03 Captain: "Yes."

15:29:11 Captain [on P.A.]: "This is the Captain. Brace for impact."

15:29:21 DEP: "Cactus fifteen twenty nine, turn right, two eight zero. You can land runway one at Teterboro."

15:29:25 Captain: "We can't do it."

15:29:27 DEP: "Okay, which runway would you like at Teterboro?"

15:29:28 Captain: "We're gonna be in the Hudson."

15:29:33 DEP "I'm sorry, say again, Cactus?"

Third voice: People, People! We have a problem. We are holding up seventy tons or more of airplane. But how are we going to get it down? We can't platt the twishers on _that_ much mass, no matter how many of us there are!

Fifth voice: I guess we should have thought of that before ... 

Second voice: It's one thing to get a dog to chase a ball ... and another thing to get him to bring it back ... and a third thing to make him drop it. 

Fourth voice: So now what do we do? 

Sixth voice [very loud]: **ШТОРМ НАД ОКЕАНОМ.**

Voices: What was that? Musta been an Elder. From where? No Elder like that here. What did he say? Storm what? 

Seventh voice: He says, Storm over ocean. 

Sixth voice: **ТЕМРЯВА! ШТОРМ! НАД ОКЕАНОМ! ТОТУЙСЯ!**

Seventh voice: Darkness. Storm over ocean. And, ah, get ready, I think. 

Fourth voice: Presence, Name, and Power! Whoever he is, he's going to do a darkness-and-thunderstorm platt ... He must be a very _Old_ Old One.

Seventh voice: Yes. From Krasny Sigorsk Group, could be. 

Eighth voice: The Weather Channel confirms a thunderstorm about thirteen hundred miles off the coast. 

Fourth voice: Thirteen ... hundred ... miles? 

Third voice: He's our only hope. 

First voice [weakly]: Okay, the Mass Cathexis Measure is now disconnected ...so I guess we're as ready as we're going to be ...

[Another indescribable event happens]

Sixth voice: **Це закінчено.**

First voice: Okay, I see it: the plane is falling ... no, it's gliding, gliding, right over the river and down towards the Battery. 

Seventh voice: What battery?

Second voice: The Financial District, she means.

First voice: Captain, we've done what we can. The rest is up to you, but watch out for the G.W. Bridge. 

Captain: I ... think I can take it from here. Thank you. God bless you. Out. 

Third voice: Boats are gonna be sent right away. Sorters, Healers, see if you can get places, especially on those two New York Waterway ferries. Lift yourself on board if you have to, this is no time to worry about our security. 

Ninth voice: Underway already. Looks like they'll splash down somewhere west of midtown. 

Eighth voice: The tide's going out. Do big planes like that float? 

Third voice: For a while ... 

First voice: Okay, they're down at 15:31:09 just off the _Intrepid_. Looks good from here. The escape slides are deploying ... _Adonday Veeah!_

Fourth voice: What? 

First voice: Someone opened the back door! The plane will flood. 

Fourth voice: What??? 

Third voice: Anyone too injured to move there? We can Fetch them out if we have to. 

Tenth voice: Speak for yourself, man, I'm _beat_.

Ninth voice: Doesn't look that way. One in a wheelchair, but she's okay. 

First voice: There must be twenty different ferries plus the Circle Line down there now. Taking them right off the wings and the slides. Nobody's in the water. 

Third voice: That's good, that's good. Coast Guard's coming too. 

Ninth voice: Okay, I count one hundred injured, but only five of them seriously, none life-threatening. Perfect job, everyone. 

First voice: The Earth-humans did a perfect job too, it looks like. Maybe we weren't even needed. 

Tenth voice: _Now_ you tell me.

Third voice: Always better to have a safety factor and not need it than to need it and not have it. 

First voice: Too right.

Eleventh voice [child]: Is it over? Can we stop now?

Twelfth voice: Yes, honey. The Sorters and Healers and the firefighters and doctors and nurses will do the rest. 

[Massive sigh of relief]

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the National Transportation Safety Board, for publishing the contents of the cockpit voice recorder and giving me almost a third of my lines of dialogue, and for all the work they do to keep accidents from happening more than once.
> 
> Special thanks to the real crew of US Airways 1549 and to the first responders from New York City and Weehawken, New Jersey, who had to do this job all by themselves; and to the air traffic controllers who keep the skies of Earth as friendly as possible, every day and 24 hours a day.
> 
> Thanks also to Alfred Bester (1913-1987) for inventing the Mass Cathexis Measure, which I have scurvily appropriated. He is (obviously) not responsible for my use of it.


End file.
